1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photocatalytic pulp composition, a molding material which is mainly a pulp and/or paper and wastepaper, preferably from newspaper, and which has the photocatalytic activity, and a process and an apparatus for producing the same, a photocatalytic pulp foam using the photocatalytic pulp composition and a process for producing the same, a molded article such as a paper and the like having the photocatalytic pulp composition and a process for producing a molded photocatalytic pulp foam using the photocatalytic pulp foam and, more particularly, a photocatalytic composition which can be widely applied to various uses as furniture, building material and general packaging material such as filter material, paper sliding screen, paper for a sliding screen, wall paper, blind, panel, lamp shade, bed sheet, curtain, carpet, sofa and sheet, and flexible composite packaging material, as well as a particular packaging material for, example, antimold use, interior material for a car, facing material on an electric product for house use, and a raw material for and an article of various molded articles such as daily necessaries, and film, sheet, adhesive or adhesive resin layer, various coating agents or coating resin membrane, or paint or paint resin membrane, which has the deodorizing and antibacterial properties and which can improve or effectively exert the photocatalytic properties of titanium oxide, that is, the properties of titanium oxide of being activated by an ultraviolet ray and oxidatively degrading organic materials, ammonia, NOx, SOx and the like such as to provide deodorizing and antibacterial properties, by adsorbing titanium oxide onto pulp and/or paper or adding titanium oxide thereto, preferably laminating wastepaper of newspaper which went through a DIP step, for example, in a paper making step, or laminating wastepaper obtained by separately drying wastepaper of newspapers via an adhesive, and articles for various uses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The above kind of titanium oxide has been hitherto used as a deodorizing filter or provided as a coating agent, and used in order to obtain the stainproofing or the antibacterial properties of surfaces by forming a film by coating on an objective material and drying it.
However, these previous articles lead to the disadvantageous results that the reacting rate is slow or the completion of the reaction is remarkably late, in the case of articles obtained by coating titanium oxide or inserting and fixing titanium oxide into gaps between fibers.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a photocatalytic pulp composition having the antibacterial, antimold, stainproofing and bad smell degrading, deodorizing and harmful material oxidation degrading effects, and which is widely used for a packaging material, building material, filtering material and the like, a photocatalytic pulp composition which is effectively used for air treatment, water treatment and soil treatment, and at the same time to provide a photocatalytic pulp composition having the photocatalytic properties which can improve the photocatalytic activity effects themselves of titanium oxide and a process and an apparatus for producing the same, a photocatalytic pulp foam using the photocatalytic pulp composition and a process for producing the same, and a process for producing a molded photocatalytic pulp using the photocatalytic pulp composition or a molded photocatalytic pulp foam using the photocatalytic pulp foam.
In order to accomplish the above object, a photocatalytic pulp composition of the present invention is characterized in that 40 to 95 wt %, preferably 80 to 50 wt % of pulp and/or paper having the water content of 3 wt % or less, the average fiber diameter of 5 to 300 xcexcm and the average fiber length of 0.1 to 70 mm is incorporated into 5 to 60 wt %, preferably 20 to 50 wt % of titanium oxide.
Next, another photocatalytic pulp composition of the present invention can be formed by incorporating 25 to 100 wt % of a thermoplastic resin therein relative to the total weight of titanium oxide, a pulp and/or paper which are blended at the above ratio.
By incorporating a thermoplastic resin therein, it becomes easy to heat-mold the above photocatalytic pulp composition and to mold it into the desired shape, and the thermoplastic resin serves as a binder and, thus, the binding between fibers becomes firmer.
Next, a photocatalytic pulp foam is characterized in that a foaming agent comprising
a) a solution of 0.01 to 0.07 wt % of a surfactant relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water,
b-1) not greater than 10 wt % of an amino acid and/or a protein such as gelatin comprising a keratinous substance obtained from a feather hair relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water, and/or
b-2) a bubble-like adhesive of 10 wt % of an adhesive relative to 5 to 50 wt % of the diluting water is incorporated into the photocatalytic pulp composition in which the pulp and/or the paper are incorporated into titanium oxide.
Even when the adhesive is added thereto, in the case where the diluting water is 50 wt % or more, the curing is difficult. In the case where the diluting water is 5 wt % or less, the viscosity is too high to expand.
Next, in the case where the protein (keratin or gelatin) is 10 wt % or more, even when a temperature of the diluting water is 50xc2x0 C. or higher, the dissolution does not occur. When the surfactant is 0.01 wt % or less, the effects are not obtained, while when the surfactant is incorporated at 0.07 wt % or more, there is no difference in the effects.
A process for producing the photocatalytic composition comprises a step of stirring a mixture obtained by incorporating the above pulp and/or paper into titanium oxide at the above ratio by subjecting stirring impact force thereto, to cause shearing heat generation and, thereby, highly drying the above mixture with this shearing heat generation to reduce the water content to 3 wt % or less, a step of swelling the pulp and/or the paper upon drying to form a three dimensional entangled fibers, and a treatment step of pushing the titanium oxide towards the fiber surface of the pulp and/or the paper by the stirring impact force to fix it.
Next, a process for producing of the photocatalytic pulp foam comprises a treatment step of pushing the above titanium oxide of a mixture obtained by incorporating the pulp and/or the paper into titanium oxide at the above ratio towards the fiber surface of the above pulp and/or the paper according to the above step, to fix it to obtain a photocatalytic pulp composition, a foaming step of preparing an foaming agent, and a step of mixing this foaming agent into the above photocatalytic pulp composition and preferably mixing it to stir and, thereafter, pressing it to obtain a foam having the diameter of the particle size of 9xcexc to 10 mm.
A molded photocatalytic pulp and a molded photocatalytic pulp foam can be prepared by pouring the above photocatalytic pulp composition or the photocatalytic pulp foam into a mold and, as necessary, compressing it into the desired shape, and heating to dry or drying the photocatalytic pulp foam.
Upon this, by molding by inserting an electric bulb or a fluorescent lamp as an infrared light source into this molded foam by the known means or surrounding or molding while leaving the source part with split-cavity mold, the photocatalytic activity effects are obtained at a place where the light source is not present, such as a storehouse and a refrigerator.
A blending ratio of a foaming agent in the photocatalytic pulp foam is such that a ratio of the foaming agent obtained by mixing into
a) a solution containing 0.01 to 0.07 wt % of a surfactant relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water,
b-1) 0.05 to 2 wt % or less of gelatin and/or an amino acid relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water, and
b-2) 20 to 200 wt % of a bubble-like adhesive relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water, or
b-3) 20 to 200 wt % of a bubble-like adhesive relative to 100 wt % of the diluting water
relative to the above pulp composition is 1:0.5 to 4, respectively. Alternatively,
a) the diluting water and the surfactant are blended as described above,
b-1) 0.1 to 10 wt % or less of gelatin and/or an amino acid is mixed with 100 wt % of the above diluting water so that a ratio of the foaming agent and the pulp composition is 1:0.5 to 3.
Furthermore, a molded photocatalytic pulp as a laminated photocatalytic pulp paper can be obtained by laminating a virgin pulp or wastepaper pulp manufactured from a wastepaper of newspaper, for example, after a DIP step on the above photocatalytic pulp composition.
The process for producing it is to make a paper from a virgin pulp or a wastepaper in a step of making paper after the above treatment step of pushing and fixing titanium oxide to form the laminated photocatalytic pulp paper.
Alternatively, in the case where the pulp is a paperboard-like dry pulp, the process includes a splitting or disaggregating step by which the above dry pulp is treated, that is, the dry pulp is cut into a plurality of sections to be treated, and the impact grinding force is applied to the formed individual sections to obtain pulp fibers which are ground and wool-likely aggregated, have approximately the same length of fiber-like raw pulp and have no fiber hair even with the grinding.
The above splitting and disaggregating step is accomplished by an apparatus equipped with a fixation side impact grinding means which is positioned on a fixed circular disc, the center of which is penetrated through a port supplying small cut sections and in which respective fixing pins are successively provided on a plurality of rotating loci, a mobile side impact grinding means positioned on a mobile circular disc which is opposite to the fixation circular disc and is rotatingly drivably provided and in which respective mobile pins different from the fixation pins are successively provided on a plurality of a rotating loci, and a take-out means for taking out fibrous sections to be treated which are ground and wool-likely aggregated into a take-out port.
Being configured as above, the present invention has the effect as described below.
Thus, according to the present invention, a photocatalytic pulp composition having the antibacterial, antimold, stainproofing and stain and bad smell degrading, deodorizing, and harmful substance oxidation degrading effects which can remarkably advance the reaction rate and the completion of the reaction, which can improve the photocatalytic activity effect of titanium oxide, and which can be applied to many wide uses such as for packaging material, building material such as wall paper, filter material is provided. In addition, a photocatalytic pulp composition and its foam which are effectively used in the air treatment, the water treatment and the soil treatment can be provided.